Alex P. Night Assignments


Assignment 1: Reasons for Writing






Elie Wiesel’s Reasons for Writing Night

Elie is a survivor of the Holocaust. Elie wrote the novel Night because he wanted the people to know
the truth about what went on during the Holocaust. Elie wanted to leave a legacy of words, of memories, to help prevent history from repeating itself. Elie witnessed the killing of his father as a child during the Holocaust. During Elie’s lifetime he has seen babies get thrown into trenches. He wrote this novel so he would not get mad at what he went experienced. He also wrote this book to keep the record of this event because many want to deny that it happened. Elie wrote this book so that people could hear from the one who experienced this harsh and brutal event.



Assignment 2: Holocaust Web Search


Night Web Search Background Information for the Holocaust
Use the following websites for a quick overview of the following terms and people.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/

Topics to Know
Questions
Answers
Nazi Propaganda
Who is Joseph Goebbels?

List three things the Nazis did to ensure
that their views were shown/heard in the most persuasive manner possible.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/propaganda_in_nazi_germany.htm

Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment.

  1. Set up the Reich Chamber of Commerce in 1933
  2. Organized book burning Episodes
  3. Organized the sale of cheap radios called “People’s Recievers”
Kristallnacht/ The Final Solution/
Wannsee Conference
What is Kristallnacht and what does the word mean? When did it happen?
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/kristallnacht/

Who attended and what was decided at the Wannsee Conference?

What was the Final Solution?

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005477

Kristallnacht was the staged pogroms that were against the Jewish Community, it is also known as the Night of the Broken Glass this is a reference to the untold numbers of broken windows of synagogues, Jewish-owned stores, community centers, and homes plundered and destroyed during the pogroms. This happened on November 9-10, 1938.

15 high ranking Nazi Party and German government officials attended the conference to discuss the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”

The Final Solution was to eliminate all the Jews.

The Victims
Besides the Jewish people, list seven other groups were also targets/victims of the Holocaust?

Briefly tell the fate of each group under Nazi rule.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007457

CLUE: Begin reading at “Targeted Groups”

They also targeted the Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Afro-Germans, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Homosexuals.

Roma (Gypsies): arbitrary internment, forced labor, and mass murder.
Disabilities: Euthanasia program was a murder program which killed mentally and physically disabled patients living in institutional settings.
Poles: murdered thousands and the men were required to perform forced labor.
Soviet prisoners: murdered

The Camps
There were two kinds of camps: labor camps and death/extermination camps. What is the difference between the two?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005144

What were the conditions?

What different types of extermination were performed?

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005145

The labor camps were where many prisoners died from exhaustion, starvation, and exposure.
Extermination camps were designed for efficient mass murder.

The conditions were brutal and harsh many Jews caught diseases while in the camps.
The different types of exterminations performed were gas chambers and weaponry killing.

The Liberation & The Nuremberg Trials
Who liberated the camps?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005131

What did Hitler do near the end of the war?

How many defendants were charged during the Nuremberg Trials? What did they represent?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007143

What did the International Military Tribunal decide was not a legitimate defense?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007142

The Soviets liberated these camps.
Near the end of the war Hitler committed suicide.
There were 24 defendants. They represented a cross-section of German diplomatic, economic, political, and military leadership.


“Following orders”


Assignment 3: Images of Night



Moishe the Beadle


Moishe the Beadle

Spiritual and poor

Influencing, teaching, and caring

As quiet as a mouse as invisible as a ghost

A messenger of the dead

Advising

Through the town to the people